Re: OT RE: [cobalt-users] Stop eZula from stealing bandwidth

[Carrie Bartkowiak <ravencarrie@xxxxxxxx>]

On Sat, 11 Aug 2001 13:50:10 -0400, Dan Kriwitsky mumbled something 
like:
>>
>>What lawyer told you that?

No lawyer told me that. However, plenty of people on this list have 
been quick to step up and define what a "derivative work" is and is 
not. This is clearly and unabashedly deriving from my work - they are 
using my content that I wrote to determine what ads will be displayed 
to the user. Then they are using those ads to lead the user away from 
my site, in a number of cases, to a competitor's site. They make the 
ads appear as if I put them there, and hide the ads when the user 
comes back to my site in confusion - again making it appear as if I 
did it. 

>>How does a program that the user installs on their computer that
>>controls
>>how their browser displays text violate a copyright?

Because that program is using my content to display its ads. This is 
quite different from the 'pay to surf' banners, which appear 
completely independent of my site. This program uses my actual site 
and content to display its ads.
It's also completely different than what you mention below...

>> Does the tool I
>>installed from MS that allows me to highlight some text and then
>>choose to
>>have it stay highlighted with a yellow background violate your
>>copyright
>>when I view your site? 

No, because YOU are choosing to highlight the text. You are using 
that program as a reference tool. With both of these programs, the 
user is completely helpless to choose how the web page is displayed 
and what text is highlighted. In some cases, the user is blocked from 
visiting further parts of my site, because the program has altered my 
text link and turned it into an ad.

>>I have @Guard that blocks banner ads. Are
>>they guilty
>>because your web page displays without your ads? 

Here you've helped me make my point. I pay money so that ads do not 
appear on my site. My clients pay me money so that they don't have to 
use a free host where ads appear on their site. These programs turn 
our entire site into an ad, using our own content that we created to 
do so.

Dan, this would be a completely different issue if the browser just 
popped up random ads - say in a DHTML layer - and floated them across 
the screen while the user was looking at my site. That is obviously 
separate from my site, and it is not dependent on the work I've 
created to choose the ad. 
These companies and these programs are profiting from MY work. They 
are incorporating their ads into my site and my content, without my 
permission. They are using my content to derive what ads will be 
shown. This IS copyright violation.
And in most cases, the user does not even realize what the hell is 
going on; because the site-altering program was installed without 
notice as an add-on with another program (like the About.Com bar, 
NetZero service, Kazaa file-sharing program - how many others?). 

>>HTML is a markup
>>language.
>>You have no control over how the users browser displays your HTML.

I beg to differ. HTML is completely about controlling how the user's 
browser displays my pages. HTML *IS* what allows me to control how 
the user sees my site - regardless of what browser they're using or 
dependent on what browser they're using. 
Because of HTML, and using HTML, I can completely control how a 
Netscape user will see my site. I can completely control how an IE 
user will see my site (or, in your words, how the browser will 
display my site). 
--
CarrieB
Where are we going? And what's with this handbasket?